Fruits of Research
by Masked Guide
Summary: After the events of The Witch's Love, Viola tries to find a way to recover Chris's memory of her. Driven by her devotion, she uncovers dark secrets about the world of magic that are best left hidden under wraps, and the twisted experiments of a certain magician...
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **A note to my reviewers: I love you all very, very dearly, but unfortunately, I'm shutting down the Replies section of this fanfiction. It just takes up a space in my story that I want to use for this story. If you really, truly want me to reply to your review, PM me, or e-mail me at ZeusLightning7 at gmail. You'll see why I've made this change in the next chapter.

_**Part 2: Fruits of Research**_

**Chapter 1: Redemption**

Roaches scurry across the bile-colored floor, searching for any sweet drop of anything to make their next meal. There was nothing, though, as it would be a miracle to find anything even remotely sweet in this place. The tiled floors, walls, and ceilings made it seem like a hospital, but the flickering florescent lights above drove it more to look like an insane asylum.

One girl's arm hangs limply off one of the surgery tables. She breathes just fine, but her eyes are milky white and lifeless from the countless many experiments. Another girl, Jess, sits in the bed next to her, watching. She dreads becoming like the girl on the bed next to her, who never eats, never sleeps, and never moves. It keeps her up at night, and it is the reason she's shivering, her knees pressed up to her chest so tightly by her arms it feels like she might be able to fold in on herself at some point.

It's just her and Jess in that little room, the one with four beds and a television that didn't work. She had counted the days since she was brought here; eleven weeks, two days. Almost a full three months. Since then, a total of eighteen 'experiments' were done on her fragile, 11- year old body. By now, she had given up any prospect of going home. This was her home now.

The door creaks open, and a middle- aged man walks in like it's his bedroom, humming a tune and smiling softly. A knot forms in Jess's stomach, and she buries her deep blue eyes in here knees, shaded by her long, scraggly blonde hair. The footsteps get closer... closer... closer... until they reach her bed. She doesn't dare look up.

Jess can feel his piercing eyes on her scalp, hear that song way too happy for a place like this. He stops his humming briefly to mumble to himself. "No, no. Not yet. Have to pace myself."

She peeks through her legs to see him turning on his heels to the other girl. The sheets of her bed shuffle as he picks her up and slings her over his right shoulder. He continues humming as he walks away with her. Jess looks up just in time to see the girl's lifeless eyes look over to Jess. She lifts her hand up shakily, waves it, and gives a weak smile, as if the two were old friends or something. It was the first time she had ever done this, and the last.

Because it's last Jess ever sees of her.

Jess doesn't wave back. She just holds tighter to her legs, hoping for some form of comfort.

* * *

"How can you not remember me?" I stare at Chris, shocked and astonished.

"I really have no clue who you are." He stares back, giving a polite, yet nervous look. I shift my gaze to his mom, who just shrugs.

"He may have lost something on his journey back." The way she says it makes it sound more like a question than an answer.

I rub my temples, sorting out my current problems in my mind. "How could he remember you, Thomas, and ELLEN, and just happen to not remember me?" Again, she shrugs, making me want to scream. "How does he even KNOW Ellen without knowing me?" I look to Chris, hoping to find an answer, but he just looks away in embarrassment.

"Uuuuhhhh... I kinda... forgot how we met..." He scratches the back of his head.

"That's because when you met, she was killing you!" I realize how insensitive that sounds only after I say it, and look to Ellen. Her cheeks are bright red, and I can see her eyes misting over. She pulls her knees up to her chin in the kitchen chair she sits in and buries her eyes in her legs. "No! Ellen! I didn't mean... Ahrg!" I throw my hands up into the air in frustration. I slam my head on the dining room table, using my hands to crazily whip my hair around.

Seriously, why can't I just catch a break?!

"Viola! Now we should definitely switch bodies! If Chris only remembers me in your body, if we switch, then..." She trails off, leaving her thought up in the air. I got the general idea, though.

"That wouldn't work as well as you'd think." I answer her. "First, I'd have to go home eventually, and that means I wont be around Chris as much. Then there's the matter of you staying with the Warrens(1). It would be kind of weird having another girl in..." I trail off as well, because the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. Chris is the only one who's actually at the house all day, and he doesn't even know who either of us are. Isabel and Thomas are usually off tending to a patient, and wouldn't really mind if Ellen stayed here, being the way they are.

"Forget what I said. Let's do it." Ellen looks up at me.

"Really? You sure? Isn't it not gonna work?"

"I said to forget it." I say, waving a hand dismissively at her. "Now draw your circles, or whatever." She looks to Isabel behind her.

"Is it okay if I draw a magic circle on your table?" She asks the former witch. The way she does and says it, too, with her legs folded criss-cross, hands tucked into her lap, and looking with those big, emerald eyes made me realize just how much I miss that body.

Yeah, I've definitely got pure consent now.

Last time we did this, I had to draw it because Ellen couldn't get up from her bed. But now she can help. I draw in the circle with a pencil, and Ellen writes 'per inania mentem nostram dirigere transitus in alterius corde' around the rim. Then I draw two triangles, one pointing at me, and the other at Ellen. In the center, she draws a large infinity that almost touches the walls of the circle. The whole time, Chris watches us with interest.

"You ready?" Ellen asks, touching her triangle with a single finger. For some reason, just like last time, I'm reluctant. Have I... grown used to this body? "Remember, if your not absolutely sure, this wont work. And if you try to preform the spell while unsure, you'll be stuck in that body forever." I wince. Forgot about that little factoid. Way to bring on the pressure.

I breath deeply, remembering how horrible the first few days were with this body. How badly I wanted that one back. MY body back.

"Ready." I slap my hand on the wood table. The triangle glows a faint blue light at first, but the light bursts up and spreads into the surrounding circle. It engulfs the entire room in a thick blue veil of blinding light. Then, everything suddenly goes black a moment after it goes completely white.

* * *

"-ola? Viola?" I take a sharp intake of breath as I wake up, expecting to be in a large amount of pain. Chris sits over me cautiously.

"Who am I?" I ask him. He just raises a brow at me, so I see for myself by checking my arm. Slender and pale. Just to make absolutely sure, I take a hand and run it through my hair. It ends short, in two braids.

It's done. Everything's finally all back to normal. I'm unusually calm as I lay my had back down on the floor. Am I finally going to live a somewhat normal life? My old life. How I've missed it...

Dad!

I leap to my feet and burst out the door, shouting, "I'll be back tomorrow! Sorry! I'm going home!" behind me as I race off to my old... my house. They'll understand.

My feet and my devotion keep me running the relatively long distance. I was so happy thinking about the happy reunion on the way home, I started crying from joy. My home finally comes into view from the trees. My home...

I don't slow down running up the porch and into the door, which Dad never locks.

"Dad! Dad!" I shout, searching the house. I sprint to his room and find him there, flipping through channels.

"Hm? Viola? Didn't you say you were going to- oof!" I don't let him finish, because I'm already jumping into him. "Jeez! Why're you so worked up?" He asks me, referring to my sobbing. I hug onto him as tightly as I possibly can and cry into his shirt.

"I missed you so much! I'm home! I'm home, dad!" I shout between sobs. Being the understanding father he is, he doesn't ask what I mean, he doesn't ask why.

He just strokes my head, and whispers softly, "Yeah, I missed you too."

* * *

"C'mo~n."

"I thought you said you hated that."

"When did I say that?"

"I think it was two days ago."

"I've changed since then. Ple~ase?!"

Dad sighs, with good purpose, too. I think the joke was getting a little old, and it definitely wasted time while hunting. Plus, it scared most of the game away. But I really needed to see it right now, just to get things back into the norm. I look up at him with my renewed begging look.

"That look is gonna be the death of me y'know." He says, wandering off to find someplace to hide. He was going to do it! He hides himself in a large bush and is concealed quite well. Before long, animals like squirrels and birds don't notice him in there, so it's no surprise that a doe just happens to get up close. The entire time I'm snickering, anticipating what's about to happen.

The moment the doe gets closer to the bush, dad jumps up. "SNEAK ATTACK!" He yells, flailing his arms like a madman. I drop to the dirt, laughing hysterically. It's really the context that's funny about it, but that's a story for another time. Of course, with Daddy's skill as a hunter he easily readies his gun and hits the doe, killing it before it gets too far.

I jog up to him as he reloads. "Okay, now I'm satisfied." I tell him. He grunts at me.

"That means you're skinnin' this one, though." My eyebrows shoot up.

"Oh, come on! You know I hate to skin them!" I peer at the motionless doe laying a fair distance away. "It's gross to see all the guts."

Daddy inserts a new shell into the shotgun and hands it to me. "If you can kill an animal, you can skin it." I close the chamber and cock it, shuttering the tiniest bit when I do.

* * *

Chris finds it intriguing, how Ellen sometimes stares out the window with her golden eyes, not giving a thought to the world around her. He'd walk up and ask her what she was thinking about, but as... What was her- Viola! As Viola said, she's already tried to kill him once. Best to keep a respectable distance.

Chris was really unsettled by Ellen's constant presence, solely from the fact that if she wasn't looking out the window into the dark night, she was staring at him from across the room as he did his chores. Every once in a while, Chris would glance back over his shoulder to find her eyes on his back. She would then turn away quickly, as if nothing happened.

Ellen has her reasons, though.

Actually, she didn't want to give Viola's body back. But she also wanted to help her friend. That was the only real reason the spell worked.

Ellen truly hated the Warrens. Their story just seemed so... false to her. How could a witch, somebody who obviously murdered people, have it so good? And at the source of it was him.

Chris.

It seemed like Viola was sooooooo happy with him. Why was that? What kind of powers did he have over her that she didn't? Was it because he was a homunculus? But now, even though his powers are drained, Viola still searches for a way to get him to remember him, so that can't be it...

Ellen startles and flips back in her chair hitting her head hard on the floor when she realizes.

How could I have been so stupid!? I didn't transfer my magic!

* * *

I sit on my bed, spinning a couple of marbles in the air with the magic Ellen ever so kindly left me in my body. It's best she doesn't have it anyways...

Dad walks in at that moment, so I let the them go. They fall to the sheets. "Hey." He regards me. "Come to the roof and see this." He recedes from the doorway, leaving my door open. I get up from my bed, following him to the backyard and up the ladder to get to the roof. I lay on my back and look up to the night sky.

After nothing but black clouds, I look to Dad. "What is it?"

"Just watch." He replies. I look back up, and see what he means. It never makes contact with the ground, but it lights up the clouds above beautifully. Lightning. Flash after flash goes off, making my eyes race to keep up with them. It's a frightening, yet exhilarating sight to see it right above our heads.

The light show ends when I hear Ellen, of all people, calling for me. "Viola!"

I look over the top of the roof to see the faint outline of Ellen's purple streaks. "Ellen?"

Dad looks at me in surprise. "Does she want to stay the night?"

My brows furrow in confusion and worry, because I can hear the protesting voice of Chris close behind her. I carefully lift myself up and hop off the roof, to which Dad yells at me for. He hates when I do that. I dust off my jeans like it was nothing, and walk casually over to my friend. "Is there something wrong?"

"I think you know." Ellen folds her arms over her chest.

"Ellen..." I put a warning tone in my voice. "There's no way I can trust you with magic."

The 'tough' act Ellen put up moments ago drops just like that. "Oh, come on, Voila! Not having it Su~cks!" She whines.

"No." I stand firm. "And you're not sacrificing anybody to get more, either." She grumbles, but complies.

"Can I at least stay with you tonight? It's a Saturday."

"Dad? Can Ellen stay the night?" I ask, shouting over my shoulder.

"Sure! As long as you promise not to jump off the roof again!"

"Yeah, Yeah... Um, Chris? Why are you here?"

"Oh, well... I, uh, told her coming here would accomplish nothing, but I guess I was wrong on that one, huh..." He's so cute, blushing a tiny bit, and looking off to the side like he thinks I wont notice. "Plus, I... She said she was going to see you, so I... wanted to... too... I don't know why, though." His words are coming out choppy and he's stammering bad. The more he goes into the explanation, the more red he gets, and the bigger my smile gets. "And, plus, I... well-"

"Stop." I hold a hand up and walk up to him. I swear he's about to explode when I kiss him on the cheek. "It'll make sense when you get your memory back. See you tomorrow." I give him one more for good measure, then turn around and walk away, beckoning Ellen to come along. That's when I notice Dad had seen the whole thing, because he had jumped off the roof, and had been watching us for quite awhile.

He smiles as I pass. "Boy from school?"

"Something like that."

"Friend of yours?" He pries, and I note how he deliberately puts 'boy' first, and 'friend' second.

"Yes, in fact he is." I answer bluntly.

"Very interesting." He nods, looking as Chris as he walks home. He smiles, but his eyes told me everything I needed to know.

They were the same eyes he gets right before he shoots an animal. They're full of killing intent.

(1) Did anyone get that reference? Mary Warren? Salem? Okay...


	2. Chapter 2

These past few months had passed by ceremoniously for Jess. There were no tests, no experiments, he would just drop in from time to time, give her migraine pills and food, then leave. There was a certain relief whenever he would leave, but also a disappointment that he didn't talk to her this time. Jess munches on a slice of wheat bread. It's plain, and tastes awful.

Yes, she, like the other seven billion human beings on the planet, likes to talk with other people. Even though he is crazy. He would usually just give her the usual checkup routine. 'How you doing?' 'How are you feeling?', Things like that are the norm. Not in the norm are things like, 'Do you miss your family?' and 'So how is this affecting you on a personal level?'

**Chapter 2: Mind Over Magic**

She hates him.

Not with the false, playground hatred seen in most eleven-year-olds, either. She genuinely despises that man with all her being, and for the rest of her life, she will never be able to listen to the song he whistles ever again. That song is stuck in her head constantly.

Jess lies in her bed in the same raggedy clothes he had captured her in; a pink and white polka-dot dress with buttons at the neck, and little frills on the arms and on the end. She was on her way to her friend's birthday party. Jess thought that day was going to be full of cake and fun. What a day that turned out to be.

The door creaks open, and this time he is coming for her. There's not doubt. Jess doesn't want to go, but she doesn't have the willpower to fight back. He hoists her up and carries her in his arms to the familiar sight of the experimentation room, setting her on the table. She squints at the large lamp overhead as he prepares his tools. He eventually leans over the light with a needle in his hand.

"Only a little more, okay? Just live for me a little longer. Then you'll have relief." He says to Jess, readying the needle. Jess glances at the vile's contents, noting that it was boiling, or, more like seething. This experiment was different. Usually it was getting scanned by large, loud machines, or getting small needles stuck in her back, or having to suffer through induced migraines. Never injections. He always said she was too 'fragile'.

The needle hurts at first. But it only feels like a pinch when she closes her right eye. Somehow, he gets the entire contents of the vile into her left eye. Jess feels it moving in there, swirling. It's then when she feels like her eye is being eaten from the inside-out. Jess can only gasp for breath it hurts so bad. Like someone is taking a pair of rusty scissors repeatedly to her eye. She can't speak, she can't even move her body, aside from her eye, which is twitching violently, and her fingers, which clutch to the bed sheets like a lifeline.

"You'll be able to do so many wonderful things if you live!" He says, smiling crookedly. But the screams in her head drown out any noise that may reach her ears.

* * *

"You can't be serious." I say to Ellen, looking down at her from my bed, folding my arms across my chest.

"I'm just telling you what I know to be true." She looks up from her criss-crossed sitting position.

"Are you _absolutely_ sure you can't? I mean, I regrew your legs!"

She shakes her head. "The brain is a complex organ. There's just no way you'd be able to re-create his hippocampus and all of it's connecting nerves exactly how they were."(1)

"The... what?" Man, I felt like an idiot just then.

"You can't remake his memories." She simplifies.

"Oh... Well, isn't there always some roundabout way of doing it with magic?" I ask skeptically. There was ALWAYS a way of doing things with magic.

Ellen gives me a slightly sadistic smile. "There's always another way." She hops out of her sleeping bag and practically skips out of the room... Creepy, but I follow anyways. I find her at the computer desk, already in the swivel chair and starting it up.

Even though I know he's out, I instinctively look around for dad. "I'm not supposed to get on the computer!" I hiss.

Ellen turns her head halfway in my direction. "Are you sure? Have you asked him?" I glare at her, raising an eyebrow. Yet another aspect of my life she had changed.

"Damn! Locked." She makes a 'tisk' sound and leans back in the chair. "What to do..." I shake my head at her and push the chair over to the side.

"I really hope we don't get in trouble for this..." I don't think he'd be too happy seeing us using it on a weekend, considering we're only supposed to use it for school. I enter the six letter name that serves as dad's password.

**_Lilith_**

Ellen sees me type in the letters. "Oh." Is her only response. I press down the enter key. "You know, Viola, we can talk about her if you want. I do have your memories."

"Just drop it." I say, a little more harshly than I had intended. I didn't want to talk about it, and that's that. Ellen scoots back up to the computer and clicks on the internet icon.

After a minute or so of searching, she finds what she is looking for. "Here he is! Dr. Luther Newlands." I look at the screen. It appears to be some of his personal information.

"34 years old, neurologist, psychologist... He's missing?" My eyebrows furrow at the next line. "Wanted for suspicion of murder?"

"Yup!" I swear she says it way too cheerfully. "And look at this." She brings up another page, a newspaper article. I read- '**Shrink needs a Shrink!- insane psychologist gone missing after wife murdered!'**

"And how does this help me?" I ask her, turning only my eyes in her direction.

"Look at the pictures." She orders. I glance at the photos of the crime scene, and I get closer in interest and disbelief. There was no mistaking those demonic red eyes. "Is that... Shax?" Ellen nods.

"The demon himself confirms it. So here's what we've got- a crazy neurologist, who can use and manipulate magic and might be able to recover Chris's memories in some way. If you really want Chris's memories that badly, he's the guy to ask."

I smile and straighten my back. "Great! Do you know where he is?"

"Not a clue." She shrugs.

My head droops. "Then that's a problem."

"Right." She taps the computer desk nervously. The house is silent for a few moments, until Ellen starts prying again. "Viola, what happened to her... I think maybe-"

"I said drop it." I really didn't want to hear this from her.

"But... she's your mom." I can see her eyes look up at me, pleading. "We should really-"

"Stop!" I cover my ears in an attempt to block her, my memories, and everything out. "I don't want to hear it! How would you even know?!"

"I'm your friend. And I know what happened." Her voice is muffled behind my hands, so I remove them to hear her out. "Didn't you see mine?" I nod as the memories of Ellen's horrible, unloving, untrusting mother flood back to me. I have to hold myself for to keep from literally throwing up as I remember the pain and misery she caused my best friend.

"Look..." I begin, sighing and gulping down my fear of Ellen's deceased mother. "I honestly don't know how awful she really was, okay? I don't know if you were justified in killing her." Actually, I do know this, even if I am too stubborn to admit it. It's scary to think about, but, honestly... I would have done it myself, had I known Ellen back then. "Let's just... not talk about it, please?"

Ellen exhales deeply. "Right..." She gets up from the chair. "I'm going to change." She mutters, walking back towards my room. The door is almost closed when she stops abruptly. "Viola? If... If I could go back and try again with her, I would. So at least I wouldn't have become... this." She closes the door ever so gently, as if not to enrage me further.

I sit in the vacant swivel chair, alone with my memories of my mom, and comparing them to Ellen's memories of her own mother. Both of which I would ask this wacko to erase.

* * *

"Alright, you ready to go?" I ask Ellen, slipping my arms through their respective holes.

She does the same with another one of my jackets, giving me a not-so-cheery, "Yup."

My lips curl into a cheeky smile. "What? Don't want to go back there?"

Her head turns my way, looking at me with deathly serious eyes. "No." She says simply. I know she wants to continue, so I thank her in my head for remaining silently apathetic as always.

I turn my head back around, calling in the general direction of dad's room. "Dad! I'm gonna take Ellen home! See you in a little bit!" I call to him, waiting for a response.

"Okay, then! You two stay safe! Wear something warm!" He answers, calling back through the house. A smile crosses my lips for his leniency.

Ellen and I step out of my house and off my front porch. She turns her head in my direction, smiling in much the same way I had not one minute ago. "You seem a little excited. Wanna see Chris that badly?"

I look up to the vast, grey sky. The trees above sway in the cold winter wind, seeming to shiver as they shed the last of their leaves. The snow fluttering in the breeze has just begun to collect and condense on the forest foliage, giving a break from the crunching sound of dry, cracking leaves to that of the snow underfoot. And to think, yesterday was so warm that this snow was rain. Go figure. "Am I really rushing that much? I didn't even notice."

Ellen shrugs, stuffing her hands in her coat pockets. "Doesn't matter. I just want to get out of this cold." She walks with me, now with the same haste I apparently have.

I bring up another topic, trying to rid myself of the awkwardness between us that was still apparent from our last serious conversation. "So, how has school been?" It's a dumb question. I know how it's been; because I got my memories when we switched. But she thankfully takes it seriously.

"Truthfully? It sucked. It was... difficult being you. I didn't know you had so many other friends. And the longer I went, the more I realized I needed you."

I hum in slight amusement and attempt to lighten the mood. "Still having trouble in writing, huh?" She nods.

"That's why you're failing it right now." She deadpans, and I wince as her words bring back the painful memory of the big fat F adorning my writing grade right now. Although it is bad, I have to wonder and be amazed at how she had gotten it from a perfect score from before we switched to a 32 in only 5 weeks. And now, I have even less time to bring it back up. Ahhh, school...

"It's fine." My mind starts to wander towards the normalcy of school, and for once, I am actually excited to go back. "I mean, it's not like I can't bring it back up, right?"

"..." Ellen is silent as I continue to make this a one-sided conversation

"And besides, because of you, I actually understand geometry. I used to hate that-"

"Viola." Ellen calls out for me. I turn to the sound of her voice, which is now far behind me. She is looking to the ground and clutching the sides of her borrowed jacket. Her long, dark purple hair shrouds her eyes and her expression from my view.

I walk towards her, wondering why she stopped. "What is it? Did you find some-" As I approach her, I notice her violently shaking hands. "Ellen?" My hands go to her arms the moment I reach her, looking down on her with worry. "Is something the matter?" No response. "What? Do you feel... Sick..." I slowly realize the gravity my words carry with them.

My eyes grow wide as I watch her limp form collapse into the snow. She rolls up into the fetal position, grabs onto her sides-

-and screams in agony.

* * *

"What?" I swallow the tears back down my throat. "But... how?"

Dr. Warren lowers himself down so that our eyes are level. He sighs, taking off his glasses to reveal his tired, work-heavy eyelids. "I'm sorry, but I just don't know how this could've happened."

"I thought... I thought we cured it!" I say to him, my fingers sinking into my thighs.

He places his glasses on the nightstand. "So did I. But for some reason or another, it's bounced back with even more strength." I can no longer hold back the tears from forming in my eyes. He notices, and tries to console me. "Hey, she's not dead yet! I'll figure it out! Promise!" He puts on a tired, yet genuine smile and places a hand on my shoulder. "Okay? You don't have to cry."

I nod, wiping my tears away with my sleeve. "Yeah. Okay." I claim as I look to the floor, then back to the hospital bed where my friend now lays. As I look at her peacefully sleeping form, I can't help but be reminded of just few hours ago, when she was writhing, squirming, and crying from the pain.

"I'll leave you two alone." He stand and exits the room. After he shuts the door, Ellen's calm, slow breathing is the only thing breaking the silence. I shuffle over to her bedside as her chest rises and falls.

My hands shaking, I kneel beside her. "I-" I begin, but the words I form in my mind don't quite make it out of my mouth. I WANT to say sorry, tell her I shouldn't have forced her to switch bodies. I want to fix this, but I don't know how! I shouldn't have let her switch. Shouldn't have let her draw that magic circle. Magic circle...

That's it!

I twist my body around and frantically search for a writing utensil, which I find a pen in the bedside table. I pull off the cap and plop to the floor, drawing out another circle. I hope Isabel doesn't mind me doing this...

I etch out the intricate symbol on the wood floor, and, having committed it to memory, I finish the last triangle after only three minutes. I step back and admire my work.

"Shax!" I call out in no direction in particular. Exactly as I anticipate, the black cat appears right in front of me.

And right in the middle of my freshly drawn magic circle.

"Yo-" He looks down as he notices the predicament I've trapped him in. "Aw, hell!" He hisses, his tail shooting straight up into the air. "Not one of these!"

I fold my arms over my chest. "I need to know something, demon. And since you're in that circle, you have to tell the truth, right?"

He sighs, laying the cat body on the floor. "Unfortunately, that is correct. Now, what is it you inquire of me?" I take notice of how he talks more... Fluently than before. "Lies? Deceptions? Riddles? Information on other demons? I know all of these things. Now, speak your request."

"The truth."

The cat turns it's head in confusion. "You'll have to be a little more specific than that."

"Is there a cure to Ellen's illness?!" I yell in my frustration.

"Sorry, that's not my domain." He states, lifting his chin into the air.

I growl at the demon and rub my temples, then take a minute to gather my thoughts. Okay, think. His domain is lies, deceptions, and other demons. Let's try lies, first. "Were you lying when you said you COULD give Ellen a spell to cure her illness?"

Shax looks into my eyes. "Not I, said the cat." Uhg... What is he, the demon of riddles too? I have to think about his answer for awile, but eventually, I formulate my next question.

"Okay then, is there any other demon who could possibly cure her?" I ask, tapping my chin.

"That would be President Barbas. Now, do you have any other questions, or can I take my leave?"

"How do I summon him?" My voice gets a little hopeful.

"Draw his crest on the ground, like every demon. Now please, release me from this infernal thing." I uncap my pen and draw a huge slash through my circle, and Shax bounds away, making sure to be on the opposite side of the room on it. "Honestly, it's our one weakness, yet it's so simple." He mumbles, his voice going back to normal. "Well, I can see now that coming here was a waste of time. See ya 'round."

"Wait! Shax..." I stop him before he returns to... wherever he goes. Hell, I suppose. "T-thank you."

He pauses and looks back at me. "...Huh..."

"What?" Did I just offend him by thanking him?

"... Nothing... You're welcome, or whatever." His head whips back around as he disappears into a cloud of black smoke.

I turn, headed towards the bookshelf. I pick out a book, 'Conjuring Demons', and flip through the pages.

"Barbas." I mumble, reading the title. The crest looks... complicated, but I drop to the floor anyways and start to draw it. "A circle there, and a triangle there, and a... thing there."

I stand again and compare my art to the one on the page of the book... Good enough, so I try my luck and touch the symbol, ever so gingerly.

Instantly, the entire symbol falls into the floor, like, literally, falls. Like there had been no ground there before. A bright, white light shoots out from the newly formed hole, and I have to shield my eyes to keep from going blind.

When the light subsides, I look back up in the direction of my circle. Where it once was, stands a tall, black-haired man, with the usual red demon eyes...

And wearing scrubs.


End file.
